I was wondering if anyone has any information about that, particularly how one's approach to parenting can be tailored to fit the needs of a child with SPD. Corbin has been in speech therapy for talking late, although he seems to be at the same stage as most little boys his age with that. Anyway, the speech therapist remarked to me that he might have SPD, because of some things she noticed. She was asking me questions, and my response was "Yes, I'd never even thought about that before" over and over. I've just read a checklist, and just about every bullet in this one category applies to him.

I really don't believe this is anything 'wrong' with him, but I really think that if he does have this, understanding it could really help me be a better parent. I was reading some of the activity ideas at a certain site and thinking "Wow, you know, I bet that would really work with Corbin." I've been feeling overwhelmed and stressed out lately trying to be the parent he deserves, and I've been running out of ideas. The possibility of him having SPD brings new hope in a way, because it could explain why he acts how he does. (By that, I mean his play preferences not his terrible two-ish behavior.) It could also mean that if I implement a new approach that other kids that are like him and have that personality and those preferences respond to, maybe I could meet his needs better and handle his terrible two-ish behavior better with those things.

So, I have two questions for you. One, can SPD cause a speech delay? If Corbin has it, it's related to touch mostly, though he does seem to have some signs of other aspects of SPD. Secondly, what kind of methods work for SPD kids to calm them down, get them to sleep, help establish a schedule, get them to listen, hold their attention, etc.? What kind of activities do you do with your child who has CPD? I'm kind of just looking for broad information right now. Who knows if he has SPD, or if he doesn't. I'd like to have some tricks up my sleeve to try though to see ho whe responds. Because I'm thinking maybe he does have SPD, and that's why he does some of the things he does. And if that's the case, maybe there's just a better way I could approach the normal two-year-old behaviors he displays that aren't currently being helped with the methods I use.

Heather, 25, single mom to Corbin, 5, and Orin, 3 Oh how I miss the days of

So, I have two questions for you. One, can SPD cause a speech delay? If Corbin has it, it's related to touch mostly, though he does seem to have some signs of other aspects of SPD. Secondly, what kind of methods work for SPD kids to calm them down, get them to sleep, help establish a schedule, get them to listen, hold their attention, etc.? What kind of activities do you do with your child who has CPD? I'm kind of just looking for broad information right now. Who knows if he has SPD, or if he doesn't. I'd like to have some tricks up my sleeve to try though to see ho whe responds. Because I'm thinking maybe he does have SPD, and that's why he does some of the things he does. And if that's the case, maybe there's just a better way I could approach the normal two-year-old behaviors he displays that aren't currently being helped with the methods I use.

We are basing DS' speech delay on his moderate-severe SPD problems.

We are still figuring DS out. Sometimes swinging helps quite a bit, sometimes it mellows him out too much. He is now able to play with sand, feathers, and rice when he wasn't able to without tantruming before.

I've had an incredibly marvelous experience with our OT. There is no way I would have been able to accomplish what we have without her and I've read a ton of books on SID at this point. If you suspect SPD, I'd get a formal eval done and go from there.

secular classical-ish mama to an incredible 5 year old DS and an amazing 6 year old DD.

My DS has SPD and a speech delay. I sing to him a lot. The more rhythmic the more likely he will comply with what I want him to do and he'll be able to repeat it. He's a sensory seeker so we do a lot of 'heavy' work like wheelbarrow walking.

There are a bunch of great threads here if you search a bit. There are also a lot of great books you can get from the library. If you just want things to do, 'The Out of Sync child has fun' is a good one.

The speech therapist that comes out here, I think she could do the OT but I haven't been able to really talk to her about it. She is new, but he likes her so much more than the others. She seems to have him all figured out. She brought over a ricebox (like a sandbox), and he loved that. And she brought these vibrating toys over, and he liked that. A lot of the treatments I'm reading about are things that she has tried with him. She mentioned a few visits ago that he might have this and said I should watch him. I'm seeing him responding well to these things, and she actually gets him to say words sometimes because she's got his attention. I'd only been letting them come out here once every 2 weeks, because they all demand DS's attention or discipline him in a way I don't like or something like that. But I think I might invite her to come once a week like they've been recommending. He behaved awfully for the others and hated their visits, but he really loves this woman.

I am thinking if I could develop some kind of "sensory diet," then maybe he'd be more calm and have constructive ways of playing rather than just being all over the place like he is. He loves to swing. I am thinking I might start trying to take him to the park everyday, maybe after dinner, then come home for a bath and lay him down. Sometimes the TV distracts him, but sometimes he won't go to sleep unless there's something on it for him to focus on. He likes the Animal Planet shows, just watching the animals. Mainly I'm gonna try and collect some things that come highly recommended and try to make a "sensory diet," and maybe distract him with those things when he starts doing something like climbing on my countertops.

My son seems to be a sensory seeker, too, Kitsune. So I'm thinking if I can meet his sensory needs, maybe that will help with all the crashing and climbing and running about! Thanks for the link. A few of those things seem like things I could do with Corbin, but because he's so young, I don't know about a lot of them. I found another site that talked about heavy work that had a lot of great ideas, too. I'm going to try to start doing that stuff when he is getting really rambunctuous and also right before I'd like him to sleep.

Heather, 25, single mom to Corbin, 5, and Orin, 3 Oh how I miss the days of

One thing to remember with swinging is to stop frequently otherwise his body gets used to the motion and kind of tunes out. We are HUGE swing fans here.

I joke about my 'Nate-dar'. DS is always jumping off of high places if I am anywhere near him. He assumes I will catch him. Lucky for him I haven't missed yet I get a lot of scared gasps from other moms but for me it's just par for the course

The short answer is: yes, sensory issues can lead to language delay; it could be a problem with fine motor control, with under/over-sensitivity or motor planning.

The best books for this are:
Sensational Kids
The Out of Sync Child
Raising a Sensory Smart Child (this has some good ideas for a younger child such as yours.

Our son did not have language delay (though his pronunciation was weak). But he did have 'quirks' and some pretty extreme sensitivities. We had ds assessed just before he turned age 5. I did it because
(a) I know that my dh has these sensory issues, and while he's learned to accommodate them as a adult, I firmly believe that a young brain can be rewired so that the brain isn't reacting as if everything were a threat (our ds' issue)
(b) My brother had unspecified learning 'issues' in school to do with organization and ability to process information. Upon reading up on SPD, I've come to see those issues as very likely due to SPD, and I was seeing many of the same tendencies in our son. My brother grew up thinking he wasn't smart, when in reality, I think he he had trouble filtering all the sensory stuff going on and with motor sequence. Both of those were things that are related to SPD.
(c) ds was starting to show some anxiety over certain things, and it was interfering with daily life - his only reaction when he was overwhelmed was to freeze. And so he couldn't participate in a lot of stuff that he wanted to.

When we took him in, what I 'saw' was a fine motor delay, sound sensitivity and tactile sensitivities. What the OT saw was those, as well as issues with his vestibular system (balance, sense of where his body is in space), motor planning and bilateral coordination (getting the 2 halves of his body to work together). It turns out the treating the vestibular issues have helped with sound sensitivity, coordination and his general anxiety level around sounds because he can identify where they are coming from and so he doesn't always view them as a threat.

Our 'treatment' is Occupational Therapy one day a week. I love our OT. She's excellent at meeting ds where he is, and pushing him just enough so he learns, but not so much that he's beyond his comfort zone. In addition, we do a home program - mostly brushing protocol and a listening program, both to help with his vestibular issues.

OT has been IMMENSELY helpful to our son in ways that are mostly unrelated to school and yet important to a child's life.

He can now tolerate being in shorts/t-shirts. He's even gone so far as to wear sandals. Last year he was in sweatpants and long sleeved shirts in 90 degree weather. That meant he couldn't play outside when it was hot. Without the brushing protocol that we learned in OT, he would not be comfortable switching clothing according to the weather. I can't tell you how much easier just getting dressed in the morning is.

He can ride a trike and a scooter. Last year he could barely ride a trike. He can do the monkey bars on the playground. Last year he couldn't hang from them! All of these were helped by OT for motor planning. He can slide down the fire pole at the playground. He can do somersaults. Due to his vestibular issues, he couldn't do either.

He now chooses to draw and write. This fine motor control helps with academic stuff like writing too, but before OT he was avoiding ALL art - that form of creative expression was closed to him.

His ability to tolerate noisy environments (such zoos, children's museum) has increased markedly. They're still stressful for him, but he now ENJOYS them. He's also no longer terrified of loud noises. Oh, they still bother him, but he can control his reaction just a bit. Why does this matter? Well, his big obsessions these days are: fire trucks and buses. Before OT he longed to visit a fire station, but was too terrified of the possibility of alarms going off to actually go in the door. He wanted to ride the bus, but the sound of the air brakes going off when they stopped made it impossible for him. We now regularly visit fire stations and ride buses. In fact, the fascination with bus schedules and buses has been largely responsible for him learning to read. We're basically supplementing school with a 'unit' on how bus schedules are made.

OT has also helped with self-regulation, reducing his flight/fight response (ds's was totally flight, other kids have more of a fight reaction). He's better able to interact with people and his world because he's not so 'alert' all the time. He's not using up all his energy just making sure the world isn't going to do something unexpected (from his perspective).

In other words, his SPD, though mild, was interfering with the basic daily experiences a child is able to have. He often COULDN'T learn through experience because his system was too 'alert' for possible 'danger' to take in any information. Or, when he wasn't, he couldn't use his body in ways to help him make sense of the world around him. That's why we did OT.